Nov/Dec recap: Spinal rotation + twisting
Ever think about how we twist? And the usual musings
I know this is absurdly delayed but you know, life. I traveled back to California for almost two weeks and after day 4 was sort of over it and wanted to be back in Berlin. San Francisco somehow has the 2nd best public transportation in the US but I’d beg to differ.
If you were in class in what seems like ages ago, you’ll recall that we didn’t do a peak pose for November and December but explored how we rotate through the spine.
Let’s take a look at the spine first. There’s a mnemonic that helps with remembering areas and vertebra within each spinal section:
Breakfast at 7 = Cervical spine, 7 vertebrae
Lunch at 12 = Thoracic spine, 12 vertebrae
Dinner at 5 = Lumbar spine, 5 vertebrae (although no one in Europe ever eats dinner at 5pm, heh heh)
The majority of (fluid) movement comes from the cervical and thoracic spine (neck and upper back). As such, twisting comes primarily from our upper back and neck, while the lower back/lumbars have very limited range to move. The lower down the spine you go, you’ll see that vertebrae get fused together into flatter, larger bone which has virtually no movement.
One has to ensure as much length remains along the spine, especially from the lumbar spine down, to have a nice stable base for the thoracic spine and higher to move.
So how do we twist?
We twist in one of two methods:
Our own internal levers. We have our side/lateral core (obliques) and our spinal erectors (muscles that run along our spine that help us sit upright). So say you twist to your right: the right oblique shortens as the left one stretches, and the spinal erectors maintain the length of the spine to facilitate the rotation.
External levers. Think about a hand to an outer leg or elbow to outer knee applying pressure to then initiate movement. In yoga asanas, this shows up as parvritta utkatasana, the Marichyasana family (without the binds), parvritta parsvakonasana, etc.
How did we experience this in class?
I’ll highlight three things in particular that we did:
Seated twists but different
Sitting in upavista konasana, we used our arms as peripheral guides for how much we are actually twisting using our own internal levers. Then, we used our external levers (hands) to place to the outer leg and behind the low back to support a long spine. Side bends are always nice too, so I added those.
Rotational core twist
I am going to guess absolutely no one enjoyed this until they got to use their elbow to their knee. And to be fair, I did this pretty quickly while in class I made you hold it and feel how demanding it was but it forced you use your rotation core muscle. Not having external leverage made it challenging to sustain the twist, while preventing the top shoulder from collapsing in, while keeping your torso hovering over your leg, while still breathing.
Warrior I - Parsvottonasana - Upright twist - Parvritta parsvottonasana - Parvritta ardha chandrasana
I always enjoy progressions within a sequence because not only does it prepare the body for what’s to come next, but it also subtly introduces demand. We’d already done an upright twist but seated, but started to incorporate this in a standing pose. From there, we landed in a revolved pyramid to then transition to a revolved half moon. Lots more demand having to stabilize while twisting and keeping a leg lifted!
Here is the sequence if you’re interested in deciphering my shorthand. If there are two things I want you to take away from this, it’s that:
Pay attention in seated twists to where your supporting hand is in relationship to your low back. Often times it’s just arbitrarily placed behind, so how can you continue to create a long, lifted, and stable base if your hand is far away?
Where can you utilize your own internal levers before resorting to your external levers in twists? Like my teacher says, have the thing that does the thing do the thing.
Updated schedule:
I’ll be at Open Studios Kreuzberg through March for now, and am starting at Hi! Yoga Sonnenallee in two days. All classes can be booked via Urban Sports, Eversports, and Classpass (except Yoga Futura).
Musings
Currently reading: Blogs on things to do in Paris. I went at age 15/16 and didn’t have the best time due to racism so I would like to experience it differently as an adult. Please send recs if you have any!
Currently listening to: I am working on this mix from Joy Orbison that was sold as a cassette tape by the record label Cav Empt 6 years ago. I also finished this journey of a mix from HAAi that was excellent.
Looking forward to: I’ll be in Paris next month and am excited to be in a saltwater pool in an old castle or crypt, I can’t really remember. But floating! In saltwater! Also exploring my new Kiez — I moved super close to Yoga Futura, Open Studios, Hi! Yoga, etc. and my commutes are sooooo much shorter now.
Not looking forward to: Filing taxes.
Thanks for reading this edition,
Jessica